Minimum Wage Increase

Posted: Wed 5:27 PM, Jun 27, 2007&nbsp|&nbsp

Updated: Wed 6:04 PM, Jun 27, 2007

Kylie Foster just got a 50-cent raise last month and she's already getting another one on Sunday. Yes, BeefaRoo bosses think her drive-thru skills are solid, but that's not why she's getting more money. Minimum wage is going up a buck to $7.50 an hour.

"I think it's great it helps out a lot because I pay my own car insurance," she says.

BeefaRoo owners say the minimum wage increase won't effect their menu or prices just what goes on behind the scenes.

"Fast food doesn't' have a huge profit margin unfortunately but just with being careful with how costs are incurred food we bring in and being careful of those kind of margins," says partner Melissa Seeling.

Seeling says BeefaRoo now sends more employees home when the restaurant is slow. And they try to prevent food from going to waste by ordering less of items such as lettuce. Anything to help make the nine-percent payroll increase seem not so bad.

A quarter of BeefaRoo's four-hundred employees make minimum wage. Restaurant owners say that rate is usually for those who are working for their first time or are still in high school. BeefaRoo is also in the process of giving raises to those already making $7.50, that way they're a step ahead of the starting rate.

Minimum wage will go up a quarter for the next three years. So by the year 2010, the starting rate is $8.25. As for our surrounding states, minimum wage in Indiana is $5.15, Iowa, $6.20 an hour and $6.50 in Wisconsin.

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